INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN INDIA
Another important decision taken in June 1989 was that the IFFI will hence - forth be of 10 days duration only. The festival which used to be held from 10-24 January would now be held from 10-20 January. Hence the number of Films in the ‘Cinema of the World’ section which was changed from ‘Information section’ from the 12th IFFI was reduced though the other sections of the festival remained unaffected.
The 22nd IFFI was held in Madras. It had a focus on the South Korean cinema. Tributes were paid to the American director Robert Altman. Homage was paid to V. Shantaram, S. Mukherjee, Shankar Nag, Arundhati Devi and Manmohan Krishna. Diamond Jubilee of Indian cinema and Platinum jubilee of Tamil cinema were celebrated during the festival.
The 23rd IFFI was held in Bangalore. It had a special focus on “Films from Iran”. Retrospectives of Italian director Francisco Rosi and Cashier’s cinema were organised. Tributes were paid to Anne Wheeler and King Ampaw. In the Indian section a retrospective of Kannada cinema was organised and homage was paid to R.R. Panthulu, G. Aravindan and Balraj Sahni.
The 24th IFFI was held in New Delhi. The festival focussed on Vietnamese cinema. Retrospectives of Ingrid Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, Kaurismaki brothers and Argos Films were organised. Homage was paid to Kanan Devi and Bhalji Pendharkar.
The 25th IFFI dedicated to Satyajit Ray was held in Calcutta. The festival had its focus on ‘Films from Mongolia’. Homage was paid to Uptal Dutt and Vijay Bhatt. Tributes were paid to Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Retrospectives of Liti and Fons Rademakers, Ingmar Bergman and Greta Garbo were also organised.
The 26th IFFI was organised in Bombay, the birthplace of Indian Cinema. The event marked the centenary of cinema. A special section was devoted to the film heritage. An exhibition on hundred years of cinema was also organised as part of the festival. Retrospectives of Federico Fellini, Zoltan Fabri, Amos Gitai, Miguel Littin, Krystof Kielowski and Elvis Presley were organised. A section was devoted to the works of the Asian women directors and a special retrospective of Marathi cinema was also organised.
The 27th IFFI was again held in New Delhi. After many years, the competition was revived on a limited scale. The section on ‘Asian Women Directors’ was made competitive. Retrospectives of Devys Arcaud; Gene Kelly; Marta Meszaros and Nanni Martelli were held. Tributes were paid to Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Zhang Yimon and Louis Malle. The festival focussed on ‘Films from Iran’.
The 28th IFFI was held in Thiruvananthapuram. The focus of the festival was ‘South Africa’. Retrospectives of the polish director Krzystof Kielowski and the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf were organised. Homage was paid to the Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni and tribute was paid to the Chilean director Miguel Littin. In the Indian section, Homage was paid to P.A. Backer and Smita Patil and tribute was paid to Tapan Sinha. A special retrospective was devoted to Malayalm cinema giving a panoramic view of 70 years of Malayalm cinema. To mark 50 years of India’s independence, a photo exhibition on the theme of ‘National Integration and Indian Cinema’ was also organised.
The 29th IFFI was held in New Delhi. The festival focussed on recent African cinema, films from Sarajevo and Iran. Retrospectives of Polish film maker Andrzej Wajda and Carlos Saura were organised. Homage was paid to the Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. In the Indian section homage was paid to Chetan Anand and Basu Bhatacharya. A cinematic tribute was also paid to fifty years of Indian Independence by screening 10 nationalist classics. Another highlight of the festival was that competition which had been restricted to Asian women directors only, was broadened this year to include male directors as well.
The 30th IFFI was held in Hyderabad from January 10-20, 1999. The Festival focussed on films from Argentina. Two new sections were introduced in this festival, viz., “Visions of India” and “Women in Cinema”. Tributes were paid to Sergei Eisen Setein; Theo Angeleopoulos; Hou Hsiao Hsein and Zsolt Kezdi Kovacs. Homage to noted Japanese film-maker Akira Kurosava was also organised and retrospectives of Wajciech Has and Roland Joffe was also organised. In the Indian section tribute was paid to Bharatan and a retrospective of Telugu films was also organised. A highlight of the festival was the institution of the ‘Lifetime achievement award’ which was conferred on the noted film-maker Bernardo Bertolucci.
The 31st IFFI was held in New Delhi from January 10-20, 2000. The Festival focussed on films from Australia; in addition, a 'Perspective on China' was also organised. Retrospectives of Italian film-maker Roberto Rosselini and Russian director Karen Shakhnazarov were held. Tributes were paid to the Cinema greats Chen Kaige (China), Fernando E. Solanas (Argentina), Bibi Andersen (Sweden) and Abbas Kiarostami (Iran). Homage was paid to Robert Bresson. In the Indian section, homage was paid to Ritwik Ghatak. The Indian Panorama, the Mainstream and the Market were the regular sections besides which an Asian competition section was also organised. The Highlight of the festival was the 'India and the International Screen' which consisted of foreign films which celebrated the Indian director/actor with a native mindset. The lifetime achievement award was conferred this year on Sri Lankan film-maker Lester James Peries.
The 32nd IFFI was scheduled to be held in October 2001 in Bangalore but was postponed due to unavoidable circumstances.
The 33rd IFFI was held in New Delhi from October 1- 10, 2003. The festival this year focussed on two countries, South Africa and Vietnam, in addition, a ‘Perspective on Brazil’ was also organised. 'Cinema of the World' the main section of the festival had 65 films from 45 countries. In the Foreign Retrospective Section a Special Tribute was paid to the renowned actor Marcello Mastroianni. The Indian Panorama, the Mainstream and the market were the regular sections besides which an Asian competition section was also organised. The highlight of the festival was the Reflections Section, which concentrated on films from five countries including France, Netherlands, Japan, Germany and Croatia. The Indian Retrospective Section had two facts comedy films and the various versions of the film Devdas. As many as five seminars were Organised during the festival.
The 34th IFFI was held in New Delhi from October 9-19, 2004. The festival this year focused on Switzerland. ‘Cinema of the World’, the main section of the festival had 60 films from 35 countries. In the Foreign Retrospective Section, two retrospectives were organized. While one was devoted to the well known French producer/director Marin Karmitz the other one had films from Larsvon Trier from Denmark. A whole section was devoted to ‘Cinema and literature from Norway’. A separate section was devoted to the German shorts. In the Indian segment, the Indian Panorama, the Mainstream and the Market were the regular sections besides which an Asian competition was also organized. A retrospective of veteran film-maker B.R. Chopra was organized. Tribute was paid to K. S. Sethumadhavan. Homage was paid to actress Leela Chitnis. A highlight of the festival was the premiere of three Indian films Pinjar, Chokher Bali and Maqbool. A Technoretro was also organized by the Kodak Company, which traced the development of film technology from its inception to the present times. Two seminars were also organized during the festival.
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